


A Pale Horse, Passant

by ambyr



Series: Winter's Choice [2]
Category: Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik, Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22981735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambyr/pseuds/ambyr
Summary: I am bargaining with a horse, I thought, a little wildly.
Series: Winter's Choice [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1661761
Comments: 17
Kudos: 63
Collections: Purimgifts 2020





	A Pale Horse, Passant

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elf (Elfwreck)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elfwreck/gifts).



Rebekah and I had planned to go into the woods the next day that she might help me learn which Staryk mushrooms were poisonous and which could be eaten, but with the horse afoot, Flek made it clear it was best we stayed closer to the mountain. I still struggled to think of a horse as a threat, but then, like the mushrooms, there were many dangers of my new home I had yet to learn. And I would not interfere with a mother's worries. So we stayed in the mountain, Rebekah practicing spinning the silver thread the Staryk so prized under Flek's tutelage and I turning each spindlefull carefully to gold, much good that it did us. One moment it was only the three of us alone in the room, and the next--the next a horse stepped through the wall, which melted into a doorway at its touch as easily as it did for any Staryk.

"Horse" did not do it justice. I had never seen an animal so sleek and fine, not even when the tzar came to Vysnia. Its coat was smooth as a frozen lake, and its eyes gleamed like the sky after a storm has passed. Flek dropped her spindle. Rebekah dropped hers, wrapped her arms around the horse's neck, and burst into tears. 

I did the only thing I could think of, and grasped the silver-belled bridle with both hands. "Go," I told Flek. "Fetch the knights."

"No!" Rebekah shouted, even as Flek began to rise. "No," she whispered, "no, don't. He says--he says he needs me, he says he chooses me, he says he loves me. He says it, and I know he means it. I _want_ to go with him."

The horse had said no such thing that I could hear, but the girl seemed convinced. Flek looked petrified. I wrapped the bridle more tightly around my hands and thought quickly. "That is all very well, but you are my bondswoman." I did not like to assert my rights--I did not like to admit that by Staryk law, in some small way, I owned these people. But I also owed them my protection, and this seemed the best way to give it. "You cannot just go; it cannot just take you. What does it offer me in exchange?"

That simple Staryk common sense seemed to bring Rebekah back to herself a bit. She loosened her hold on the horse's neck, though she did not stop gazing into its eyes. "He says--" she frowned, and the horse whickered, as though they were arguing. Flek had finished standing; step by step, she slowly backed out of the room. I hoped help was not long in coming.

"He says he has nothing to offer you," Rebekah said, finally. "Only he, only I--we _must_ be together," she finished.

"There is an easy answer to that," I said, with a confidence I did not feel. "He need only pledge himself to my service, and he can stay with you as long as he likes." _I am bargaining with a horse_ , I thought, a little wildly. But it did not matter how absurd it was--it only mattered that I was stalling.

Rebekah darted her gaze to mine and made a short, brief nod, then returned to her silent conference. "He says he cannot," she said, slowly. "We are needed." Like a sleepwalker, moving slowly, she stepped to the side of the horse. My hands were still on the bridle, but it was only the three of us in the room, and I did not think I could win alone a contest of strength against a horse.

"A year and a day," I offered. "If he serves me fairly for a year and a day, and _if_ you choose to go with him still, we may talk further terms. You may tell him as well," I added, "that time moves differently here, and whatever task he must complete in the--" he could not be from the mortal world, surely? "--elsewhere, there will be time enough for it later."

She stopped moving; the horse turned its head to look her in the eye. A tiny smile crossed her face. "He says yes," Rebekah said. "He says yes!"

She hugged the horse again, and I made no move to stop her, only clenched my hand and concentrated. One by one, the bells on the bridle turned to gold.

And that is how they found us, Flek, the knights, and my lord husband: with Rebekah's arms still wrapped around the horse, and its livery all changed to the colors of _my_ service.


End file.
